Unlike the recent visits of French President Emmanuel Macron, who criticized Trump’s policies before a joint session of Congress, or German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who continues to be critical of a range of Trump’s polices, Buhari praised Trump in ways that will be pleasing to him and his base.

The global economy will confront serious challenges in the months and years ahead, and looming in the background is a mountain of debt that makes markets nervous—and that thus increases the system's vulnerability to destabilizing shocks. Yet the baseline scenario seems to be one of continuity, with no obvious convulsions on the horizon.